pivoting in a pandemic

"Problem-solving in the creative industry is something we're taught to thrive on. Yet the pandemic has thrown us all a curveball and coming up with a plan to help brand communications pivot - has been key."  - JAY SHORT, CLIENT SERVICES DIRECTOR | CO-FOUNDER

Date: 21st December 2020

The positive side of the pandemic.

There is no doubt that the last eight months have been sh*t. Everyone knows it, so that is not what this article is about. This article is about taking a ‘glass half-full’ attitude towards the whole situation that we are in as we head towards 2021. There are many positives to embrace, and opportunities to shift the ways that we look at how we communicate with our customers and each other. We will look at this from two angles -  Business Tools and Consumer Tools with the hope being that 2021 can be so much better in so many ways. As we move into 2021, sensible businesses will be realising that there is still a definite need for physical events, but maybe not as many. Pragmatism should mean that the idea of creating a virtual event space should be one that businesses begin to explore. The idea of creating a vast space that is completely managed by your brand, with an architecture that means messaging can be updated constantly, as well as being able to understand your stakeholder behaviours and interests through data, should be seen as an invaluable asset. Business Tools Driven by survival instinct, we decided to take an immersive approach to virtual meetings and created our own virtual office. As our space expanded, it rapidly became clear that there was something here that would have value beyond the time that we were unable to work from our actual office. This virtual office was the catalyst for a shift in thinking as we began to realise that commercially there was an opportunity to change the way that physical events are used. We began to look at the carbon footprint of past briefs where hundreds if not thousands of people would travel across the world to attend conferences and Expos that were not only costly, but also shrouded in mystery as to the real value that they offered.

Our Virtual Office, built in Mozilla Hubs. A space we created to host meetings, sessions and show clients the capabilities of having your own virtual real estate.

As we move into 2021, sensible businesses will be realising that there is still a definite need for physical events, but maybe not as many. Pragmatism should mean that the idea of creating a virtual event space should be one that businesses begin to explore. The idea of creating a vast space that is completely managed by your brand, with an architecture that means messaging can be updated constantly, as well as being able to understand your stakeholder behaviours and interests through data, should be seen as an invaluable asset. Consumer Tools  With the world in lockdown, consumer behaviour changed in the blink of an eye. Brands had to rapidly adapt to cater for an at-home audience and use the tools at hand to maintain their customer relationships. 2020 saw the unlikely return of the going-out-of-fashion QR code, thanks in part to the mandatory adoption of the ‘Track and Trace’ system. Using these black and white codes, consumers are able to launch content straight from their smartphone cameras, driving an uplift in creative Augmented Reality experiences. Instantly accessible and tantalisingly shareable, AR is a mainstream immersive medium that has never been more relevant for brands to adopt in 2021. Exciting times ahead All of a sudden, opportunities have been created that allow for the deconstruction of the whole advertising landscape. Now not only do you not have to pay for a physical billboard, but you can go rogue and place a digital overlay on the physical billboard of your competitors. Not only can you make a celebrity part of your campaign, but you can bring them into your own home and have them appear on your tabletop or be controlled as part of a game where your house becomes the gaming environment. The most exciting thing for us as a business working in the technology space is that we are now seeing a shift in mindset from clients. Those same clients who pre-2020 were concerned about ease of access and a marketplace that would be too busy to adopt anything new are now realising that it might just be the perfect time to take a deep breath and embrace technology and the ways that it can change the way we work and live.

It's time to discover a new set of communication tools to connect with your audience. 2021 here we come!